Endless Nightmare
by aBeautifulLiar
Summary: It wasn't until her mother died, that Ron realized he knew nothing about his wife. All those fake smiles, the made up fantasies about her parents; it was all lies. He had no idea who she was. AU Fic.
1. Chapter 1

**Disclaimer: I own nothing but my imagination... and my fingers. **

**~ Chapter One~**

Hermione closed her eyes as she listened to the voice on the other end of the phone, she didn't know whether to be relieved or to cry. She had no idea what the reaction should be to the death of someone who abused you for so many years. Now that she was finally dead, should she see her mother as the woman she always wished she would be? Or should she continue seeing her as the woman who caused so much pain throughout her childhood?

She finally hung up, sighing, unsure whether to ask Ron if they could take a few days off work to go to the other side of the country to the scene of the crime. She knew they could probably help, just to see if magic was involved, but at the same time she knew she would never be able to look him in the eye ever again if he knew what growing up in the Granger household was actually like.

"Ron, I was wondering if you could come back home with me for a while." She paced back and forth, glancing at him every now and then. "My mother has been murdered, but that's not the strange thing.. six other people before her were murdered in exactly the same way and the muggle police force – remember, I told you they're sort of like the Ministry with enforcing laws – are unable to find any evidence, so I thought maybe magic is involved."

"Did you know all the victims?" Harry piped up from the other side of the room, looking at her when Hermione nodded a little, thinking about who the murderer could possibly by – someone she may have known, or maybe someone who moved into the area shortly after she left.

"Are you okay, my love?" Ron whispered softly, looking in concern at his wife, a frown forming on his face at the lack of emotion she was displaying. She nodded again, "My mother and I didn't get along.. you know that."

Ron – the man she had once described as having the emotional range of a teaspoon – had managed to discover exactly how his wife was feeling at all times. He could hear the hesitant tone in her voice, he could see the lack of emotion on her face and he wondered exactly what happened between her and her mother, suddenly finding it strange that in the ten years he had known her, she had not once mentioned her parents.

"Like any other daughter and their mother, I guess. She was deeply religious. I was not. She didn't like that." She shrugged it off, but Ron and Harry both knew there was something more, "Did she ever hurt you?" Ron bit his lip, not knowing where the question came from, it was just a gut feeling,

"What has that got to do with her dying? Are we going to go or not?" Ron nodded, surprised at the sudden change in mood that appeared in his usually calm wife, "Let's go see if there's anything wizard-like involved." He tried to smile at her, trying to shake off the feeling that there was more to his wife, and the girl he loved than he could ever know. He followed her out of his office, before heading off to the small town in which Hermione Granger had grown up.

~ .. ~

_Nightmares. _

Ron bit his lip with worry when he watched his wife groan in her sleep, her voice barely a mumble and he couldn't help but feel that this was something more than the war, of which they all still had nightmares about. "Should we wake her up?" Harry whispered, nodding when Ron shook his head – he wanted to object, but Ron was her husband and he knew what was best for the woman.

"No, let her sleep.. her mother just died, she's bound to have a nightmare about how it happened or something.." Ron was uncertain with his own words, keeping a close eye on her as she slept.

_Hermione looked at herself in the mirror, grinning at her four year old self as she applied some of her mum's make-up to her pale cheeks. She ran downstairs gleefully, proud of what she had done, hoping her mum would feel the same once she saw her little girl. _

"_Mummy, don't I look pretty?" She said as she twirled around, looking at her mother when she stopped – confused by the anger on her face. _

_"What have you done? How dare you touch my stuff! I have told you about this before, Hermione Jean Granger." She grabbed a wet cloth, rubbing it harshly on the little girls cheeks, ignoring the tears that ran down her chocolate brown eyes. "I'm going to have to teach you a lesson." Hermione looked down at the floor, crying out when her mother grabbed her arm roughly and dragged her towards the broom cupboard. _

"_Now, you have to stay very still and quite in here, otherwise the rats and the spiders will eat you." Her mother grinned evilly at the four year old shaking before her, pushing her into the small, dark cupboard and slamming the door. _

_Hermione looked around, sitting down in the middle before crying. She sobbed as she felt that familiar trickle running down her legs; she had wet herself – again. It wasn't long until she became hysterical, banging on the door, screaming as loud as she could. Hot tears fell down her face, taking a large step back when she heard someone walk towards the door. _

_She smiled up at her mother when the door opened, lifting up her arms and waited for the hug she had seen all those other mothers give their little children. Instead, she received a swift slap across the face, sending her head to the side and more tears falling from her eyes. _

"_Shut up, devil child!" Hermione looked up at her, her large eyes filling will ear as she saw the door slam once more. She stood still for the rest of her time in the cupboard, staring at the door. _

_Finally, after eight hours, and exactly half an hour before their daddy got home from work, she was pulled out, wincing a little as the light found her eyes. _

Hermione woke up suddenly, lurching forwards in shock at the nightmare she hadn't had since they had left Hogwarts, even before then. She knew that the little girl in her nightmare would soon get used to the feeling of being alone in that cupboard, she would soon give up on the screaming, she would soon realize not long after that first time that nobody cared, nobody would come.

"'Mione, are you okay?" Ron sat next to the shaking woman, noticing the fear and confusion in her eyes before she quickly masked it, and smiled at him. "Yeah, just a silly nightmare.. the usual.. you know. I'm fine." Ron nodded, wrapping his arms around her gently.

She turned the other way, away from her husband, leaving him confused as she always wanted his comfort after a nightmare about the war. She tried not to think about anything that had happened after that first punishment. She remembered all the times after, it carried on until she had announced she wasn't scared of the rats in the room anymore, and that she was able to make them all go away anyway, with magic. She wasn't scared of the dark anymore, because she could make a light appear when she was scared.

Her older brother – Jasper – told her it would work, that if their mum thought she was no longer scared, it would no longer be a punishment. It had worked, but there were always other ways.

Hermione smiled a little as she thought back to those times in the cupboard, all alone and scared but then Jasper would sneak down from his bedroom and talk to her until he was caught. They would talk about everything and anything, with only a year between the two, they used to be close until magic separated them. They were close because they weren't allowed any outside contact, they only had each other. She laughed a little at the memories, cursing herself when she realized her two best friends were staring at her.

"What's so funny?" Harry finally asked after a few moments of silence, Hermione shrugged as she wondered if she should tell them the real thing that made her giggle, or just make something up. She sighed, it couldn't do any harm.

"I was just thinking about how close me and my brother used to be." She smiled at them,

"I.. I didn't even know you had a brother." Ron stared at her, wondering how much he didn't know about his wife, wondering how much more she had hidden from him all this time.

"We were best friends, mum didn't let us go out much and we only really had each other," She laughed again, and looked at them, "When I was four, and he was five, we decided we were going to get married when we were older, and live in a big house all on our own and we would live happily ever after." She sighed, looking out the window, a small, sad smile creeping onto her face,

"What happened?" Harry whispered, frowning,

"We grew up and realized that was illegal." She laughed again, trying to lighten the tone for the three of them. The two just laughed – allbeit hesitantly – at her, and went back to their card game, trying to forget about the scream they had heard from her during her nightmare.


	2. Chapter 2

**Disclaimer: See last chapter .**

**~ Chapter Two ~ **

"Hermione? Are you sure you're up to this?" Hermione looked at her husband and nodded, as they drove towards her childhood home. She had smiled when he decided to take the muggle way, the relief taking over her as she remembered the torture she had endured as a child because she was so different.

"You don't have to pretend for us, we don't mind if you want to cry.. or something." Harry offered, putting a hand on her shoulder, trying to offer some comfort to the unemotional women before him.

"Look, I told you all before, me and my mother weren't close. I know I should be upset, and I am.. but I would rather focus on trying to discover whether this is magic related or not." They all nodded, glancing at her every now and then as they drove towards the house the young witch had grown up in.

~ .. ~

"You grew up here?" Ron looked up at the large house, his mouth slightly open as he took in the massive, beautiful manor house in front of them. Hermione nodded, she hadn't seen her family home for years, and it still terrified her. She bit her lip nervously and started to walk down the path towards the bright red door, the door she still had nightmares about.

"'Mione!" She smiled shyly at her dad as he opened the door, wrapping his arms tight around his daughter. "Hey, daddy." She whispered, wrapping her own arms around the man she adored so much, but hadn't seen in so long.

"Come in, please." He stepped back, opening the door wider for them all to go through. Ginny looked at the house in amazement, taking in the beauty and large detail of everything that was placed in the house. "This is a beautiful home." Harry spoke up, looking the older man in the eye, wondering if he was the reason Hermione was so scared.

"Is it okay if we have a look around?" Ginny asked, smiling when the man nodded, "My wife was found in the master bedroom, it's the first bedroom to your fight as you go up the stairs." She thanked him, before walking off with Harry not far behind her.

There were five bedrooms upstairs, Ginny walked into one of them, smiling at the design – it looked exactly like the princess bedroom she had dreamed of when she was younger – she walked in, lightly touching the bright pink name on the door. Harry followed her in, smiling as he saw the bedroom his best friend had grown up in.

"It's amazing." Ginny looked at the pink curtains, and the matching bed covers and carpet with a light pattern of flowers fading into the silk. She walked over to the small, baby pink dressing table, her fingers dancing along the dust covered surface.

"I always loved this room." She heard from behind her, Hermione was standing there with her arms folded over her chest, smiling at her childhood bedroom. "Daddy decorated it when I was younger, it took him so long to do it, so we never changed it." She walked over to the queen sized bed, sitting on the edge, looking around,

"I was terrified of the dark." She looked at Harry, and then pointed up to a butterfly shaped light in the corner of the bedroom, "That would go on in the night, I remember laying here smiling up at the butterfly shapes it would make on the ceiling. When daddy wasn't here, my mother would turn it off and make me lay here in the dark, crying." She shrugged it off quickly, pretending she didn't care.

"Where's all your toys?" Ginny asked, looking around and opening a cupboard. Hermione laughed and got up from the bed,

"Mother didn't believe in stuff like that, bedrooms were for sleeping and sleeping only. This whole floor was out of bounds during the daytime, we didn't need toys up here because of that." She looked down at the floor, biting her lip,

"Did you find the master bedroom?" They both shook their heads, following Hermione when she walked out, leading them to the bedroom across from her. She opened the door and looked at the bedroom she had been banned from until now.

"I should go back down, daddy was upset." She smiled lightly at them, brushing past the both of them before quickly walking down the stairs.

"This must be hard for her..." Ginny whispered after a few moments of silence as they both looked around the bedroom, "I don't know how her father can cope still living here."

"Maybe they weren't close.." Harry pointed towards some photographs on the wall, looking at a small framed photograph of the couple – neither smiling, their hands laying stiffly on each other's. Ginny nodded a little, "Why would they stay together then?"

Harry looked at his wife, "In the muggle world, some look towards religion to guide their way.." He pointed at a large picture of 'Jesus' hanging above the bed and a cross hanging from the mirror, "Hermione's family must have been strict Catholics.. it must have been hard to accept her magic, too."

Ginny nodded, pretending to understand as she looked around again, "Do you think she knew the murderer?" Harry nodded, "They were in the bedroom, there are no signs of a struggle, there's no blood.." He frowned, repeating the last part,

"Why would he lay her on the bed, as though she was sleeping? That's not exactly a typical dark wizard, is it?" Harry shrugged, moving out of the bedroom, "Maybe he's asking for forgiveness."

~ .. ~

"What were you doing at the time of your wives death?" Ron looked at the man in front of him, and then towards his daughter who sat next to him, she bit down on her lip and looked at the floor as she already knew what Ron was wondering. "I was playing golf... I'm not sure if you play that in your.. world.. but it's a great hobby of mine. I was with a number of friends and colleagues, I can get their names if you would like."

Ron shook his head, "I'm not here to accuse, we're just here to see if magic was involved."

"I have no reason to kill my wife, we were happily married..." Ron stared at Hermione when she started laughing, "What?" He looked at her, confusion evident in his eyes as she shook her head,

"They were never happy, even when I was younger. He would spend more and more time outside of the house just to get away from her." She looked over at her dad who nodded, tears forming in his eyes, 

"I still loved her, she was just.. difficult."

"She never loved you." Hermione muttered, standing up and walking to the door, Ron followed quickly and called for Harry and his sister. Hermione closed her eyes, waiting for her friends at the door, thinking about all the times she had come so close to running away from the house, escaping the memories it held within it's walls.

"_Where do you think you are going?" Hermione dropped the bag she held in her hands and turned around, looking at the ground, _

"_Nowhere.. I was going for a walk." She gulped, looking up at the woman standing in front of her, her eyes wide with fear as she was suddenly yanked forward by the women she was supposed to call mum, the woman who was supposed to love her. _

"_You're going to be punished for this, you little brat! I give you everything, I give you a roof over your head, food on the table and this is how you repay me? Think again!" Hermione screamed in pain as she was chucked onto the cold floor of the garage, her exposed knees cut and bruised from the hard impact. She felt her mothers eyes on her, refusing to look up as she let a few tears fall when she thought she was finally alone. _

"_Get up!" She obeyed quickly, too scared to say or do anything else other than what she was told, "Bend over and lift your top up!" Hermione's eyes brimmed with tears as she did what she was told, knowing what was coming. She screamed in pain as she belt made contact with her bare skin. She still continued, ignoring the tears falling from her daughter's face, holding her hair as tight as she could to make sure she didn't collapse or escape. Hermione bit her lip in pain when she finally stopped, thinking how she couldn't wait for the day when she could use magic outside of school. She felt the darkness overtaking her already before she even collapsed to the ground. _

Hermione gasped, opening her eyes again to find her husband standing in front of her. She realized she was crying, quickly wiping them away. "Are you okay, 'mione?" He whispered, rubbing her back in comfort, she nodded quickly – too quickly and opened the door. Knowing this time she could escape, knowing the woman who had hurt her in more ways than one for so many years was finally gone for good.

She fought the urge to breakdown in front of her best friends, and her husband right there and then, deciding it was better left for when she was alone. Ron looked at the other two, who shrugged their shoulders, all knowing there was a lot more that went on in this house than Hermione was letting on. And they were going to find out exactly what was causing the usually calm woman to shake in fear, scream in pain and cry at the memories that seemed to haunt her since she was told of the news of her mother.


End file.
